Citizens Action League v. Kizer

O’SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge:

This appeal turns on whether California has made a permissible interpretation of federal Medicaid law to authorize recovery of benefits from a deceased recipient’s “estate.” Plaintiffs are a class comprised of persons who by right of survivorship have succeeded to property they formerly held in joint tenancy with a benefits recipient. They argue that Congress’s use of the word “estate” in the recoupment provision limits a state’s recovery to property which descends to the recipient's heir or the beneficiaries of the recipient’s will upon death. Because the property…